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Thursday, December 29, 2011

'Faeries, come take me out of this dull world, For I would ride with you upon the wind, Run on the top of the dishevelled tide, And dance upon the mountains like a flame.' ~Yeats, 'The Land of Heart's Desire,' 1894

Enter the land of heart's desire aka coastal Long Beach, CA where the fae folk dance and live in harmony hidden from the eyes of men. Camp experience includes faerie and elf lore and language, theme activities and dining and more.This event to now be separated into 2 events. Details to be posted on our new Camps Site, due to be completed November 2015

Saturday, December 24, 2011

A comprehensive social etiquette course covering everything from the basics to the bewildering. Open to all levels of experience and expertise.We're currently building a stand-alone site for this experience, for now, please visit our Tea and Etiquette Camps page.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Nearly a century after they burst out of their corsets and into the speakeasies, the Jazz babies of the 1920's are still roaring

by Joie de Vivre

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco"Chanel

The young women of "the lost generation" who lopped off both their hair and hemlines, and who thumbed their noses and hipflasks at the Victorian mores into which they were born, did far more than create a trendy fad or two. They became icons of the first completely modern era and drew the world's collective gaze toward America.

"The flapper engaged in frivolity and recklessness. She was a rouge wearing rebel- a fast living, rule breaking, beautiful young woman. Flappers were notorious for smoking, drinking, and dancing. These young girls did what only men had done before them. They drove automobiles and rode bicycles. They snuck alcohol into speakeasies during Prohibition by strapping flasks to their inner thighs... They partied late into the night and danced the Charleston and the Shimmy.

The new, wild dances of the Jazz Age required women to move more freely. As a result, flappers stopped wearing corsets, and this became a focus of controversy. During the 1920's, corsetlessness was thought to be dangerous and evil. Flappers broke all the rules and started wearing a new type of undergarmet called a "step-in." Without the curve-enhancing corset, the flapper's figure was straight and boyish.

The corset wasn't the only change in Flapper Fashion. Young women chopped off their traditionally long hair and died it jet black. They wore short, modern "bobs" or "shingle" cuts. Their hem lengths were chopped off too. Flappers wore dresses just below the knee and exposed their legs for the first time ever. These baggy dresses were sleeveless and had modern waist lines that rested on the hips."[http://kylet.myweb.uga.edu/project.html]

They painted their faces and powdered their knees and went so far as to bind their chests in order to heighten their 'boyish charm'. This gender bending went far beyond fashion, as flappers smoked cigarettes, drank hard liquor, demanded the vote, drove automobiles, and wanted to attend college as well as work outside the confines of the homestead. In the aftermath of WWI, and with available men in short supply, these young women struck out on their own, impressed with the great war's warning of the fragility of fleetingness of life. And so they embraced hedonism, consumerism and individualism; they flaunted leisure, sporty fitness and fun... to the degree that one may well wonder if this is the subculture that spawned 'teen angst'.

Scores of decades later, the flappers' style still captivates, their music still gets toes tapping, and their indomitable spirit and spunk still speak to our own, perhaps hinting that there is a litte flapper in us all. And their own siren song still quietly resonates in our ears, "Not much money, Oh, but honey Ain't we got fun? Night or daytime, it's all playtime - Ain't we got fun?"

THE FLAPPER

by Dorothy Parker

The ever-pithy Dorothy Parker

The Playful flapper here we see,
The fairest of the fair.
She's not what Grandma used to be, --
You might say, au contraire.
Her girlish ways may make a stir,
Her manners cause a scene,
But there is no more harm in her
Than in a submarine.

She nightly knocks for many a goal
The usual dancing men.
Her speed is great, but her control
Is something else again.
All spotlights focus on her pranks.
All tongues her prowess herald.
For which she well may render thanks
To God and Scott Fitzgerald.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The Good People maintain their timeless power and presence, whether you can see them or notby Joie de Vivre

Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania, Queen
of the Fairies, in Shakespeare'sA Mid-Summer Night's Dream

This last weekend I officiated a Hogwart's High Tea, e.g. a Harry Potter party. The only thing more pleasurable than the whimsical proceedings was the affable crowd. They were just the nicest people ever. Through the course of the event I learned that in addition to HP fans, there were all sorts of LotR groupies (that's Lord of the Rings to non-denizens of Middle Earth) and a few Twilight enthusiasts, primarily among the tween guests.

When I faced a lull in the action while waiting for a few participants to finish their Goblet of Fire quiz, I stalled by conducting an impromptu poll. I asked how many in the audience were lovers of mermaids -- half of the hands rose in curiosity. Next I asked about genies.... only a few jumped on that magic carpet. Finally, I asked about faeries. I expected little to no response given that the audience was about 20-50 years older than the usual pint-sized fairy fans I have encountered. To my surprise the air was filled with wildly waving hands.

Turns out faeries are still big news... and have been so on and off since the time of Homer. In doing a wee bit o research on the subject for our Faerie weekend Getaways premiering next year, I was able to cull my findings down to just over 100 pages.... Don't panic, I won't regurgitate it all here - especially since I came across mounds of contradictory information on everything from the beings' size to intent to proclivities... even the spelling of their species! Just take a gander at the intro to the topic posted on Wikipedia:

As with many research projects, a little knowledge can prove dangerous, and I admit to being far more baffled by faeriedom after all my reading than I was prior to it. According to what could be considered a bevy of 'reputable expert' sources on the subject, faeries have been found far and wide, from the UK to Scandinavia to Asia. In Britain, the fee folk enjoyed their Golden Age between 1840 & 1870. Ironically, they are said to have departed the world as we know it the century before.

Apparently the fae come in a variety of flavors. There are more classifications of fairies than there are races of humans. One such example is that of Nature Fairies which includes mermaids, water-sprites, tree spirits and so on. Faerie People of the Elfin race are regarded fairies in the truest sense. They generally dwell underground, have a penchant for green, an attachment to cattle, love milk, can become invisible at will, enjoy pranks, and love nothing better than dancing... in Fairy Rings. The lure and enchantment of the latter has led many a mortal to his doom.

....Yikes, this only takes us through the first page of my notes! All right, Plan B. For now I will take the easy way out by stating that all fairy questions will be answered at our 2-day Faerie Fete getaways launching in just a few short months.... in mortal time, that is. There we will cover faerie festivals, sightings, folk legends, customs, enchantments, traits, language, history, human relations, fairy etiquette, fairy tales, music and, of course, dancing!... not to mention all manner of proprietary secrets I dare not mention in so public a forum.

"Mermaids surface as the next big thing," reads the headline of Carol Memmott's article in USA Today. "From books to movies to blogs to gatherings, mermaids are making a big splash in popular culture this summer."

"Fringe no longer, mermaids are poised to challenge vampires as pop—and commercial—icons," writes Joel Stein of Businessweek's Bloomberg report, "...mermaids are about to swamp vampires and zombies as supernatural rainmakers in popular culture....

Building off the buzz from this year’s installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise—which featured a plethora of bad-ass, sailor-drowning mermaids played by models—mermaid-fueled projects are piling up. Twilight author Stefanie Meyer says her next book is all mermaid. Joe Wright, who directed Atonement, is planning a live-action, dark version of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid; Tobey Maguire is producing a rival, also dark, also live-action Little Mermaid. In June, Disneyland launched a new Little Mermaid ride and will add one to Disney World in 2012. Photographer Mark Anderson is releasing a book—available as an iPhone app—called M: Mermaids of Hollywood, that features Anna Faris, the Kardashians, Kristen Bell, and others in tails."

And according to Stephan Lee of EW.com, this is "the year mermaids swim into movies, books, fashion..... and maybe your local swimming pool."So is it any wonder we will be hosting weeklong Mermaid Camps and weekend getaways next Spring and Summer? Our neophyte routine has just been choreographed, complete with props... and we are nearly jumping out of our fish skin with impatient excitement to flex our fins and splash our tails with you. Be sure to sign up early. These meraculously fun events are sure to sell out barracuda fast!If you'd like to flip your fins with us online, splash on over to our Facebook page and say hello. That goes for you L'il Mermaids too!